Simple, cheap, tasty homemade sandwich thins

I wanted to try out some sandwich thins, but blanched at the price tag. I make all of our sandwich bread, so I thought I would give these a try. Makes 16, 109 calories each, super easy.

1 1/3 cups warm water (not too hot!)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 egg
2 teaspoon olive oil
3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat bran
2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten flour
1 teaspoon salt, or less to taste
2 Tablespoons rolled oats

In the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle the sugar and yeast over the warm water. Add egg and oil and mix.

In another bowl, combine flour, bran, gluten flour, and salt and mix with a fork or whisk to combine evenly. Add half the flour mixture to the yeast mixture, combine and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes (or more, nbd) until it increases in volume and looks spongy.

Add the rest of the flour, use the dough hook to combine and knead for 5-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This is a VERY sticky dough, so be patient.

Spray 2 big cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper or a silpat. Using a food scale, divide the dough into 16 equal portions and put them on the cookie sheet. Wetting your hands frequently will help keep them from sticking. I used another sheet of parchment paper over the top and just flattened them with my hands, but you could use a rolling pin, shape them into a 4" cookie cutter, or bake them in a muffin top tin if you want them perfectly round.

Top with oats and press them slightly into the top so they stick.

Preheat oven to 350F and let the rolls rise until about doubled while it is heating. No need to be exact, but they won't rise more in the oven so let them rise until they are the size you want. Bake 12-15 minutes until very slightly browned or tops just look dry.

Some notes:
The egg is a binder, so you probably can't just omit it, but next time I will try a flax egg to make them vegan.

The recipe I started with called for white sugar, I used brown because molasses is so nice with whole wheat. Next time I will halve the quantity to 2T and just use molasses. They were okay, but way sweeter than I would prefer. If you are trying to cut down on sugar feel free to halve it or use a natural sweetener of your choice, but don't leave it out entirely - the yeast needs it.

To cut them in half, use a spacer like a couple of chopsticks on your cutting board to keep it even. These are indeed very thin and difficult to cut.

Whole process, not including inactive rise time, took about 30 minutes.

Oh yeah and I started with this but couldn't resist the changes noted above: http://www.food.com/recipe/thin-sandwich-buns-400468